News

Renault Pulls the Plug on Mobilize Duo, Signaling a Reality Check for Urban EV Experiments

Renault’s vision of the electric city car has taken another sharp turn into the cul-de-sac. Before the Mobilize Duo even had a chance to set tyre tracks on UK roads, the French manufacturer has quietly but decisively killed it off, citing “limited profitability prospects.” Production is ending, the Mobilize Beyond Automotive division is being dismantled, and what was once positioned as the future of Renault Group’s urban mobility strategy has been folded back into the corporate archive.

On paper, the Duo should have been a logical successor to the Renault Twizy, a vehicle that—while never mainstream—became an instantly recognisable symbol of compact electric mobility. The Duo was cleaner in concept, more refined in execution, and designed for a world increasingly shaped by congestion charges, low-emission zones, and app-based everything. In reality, it has become the latest example of how difficult it is to turn clever urban mobility ideas into sustainable businesses.

The Duo wasn’t just another niche EV. It was meant to be the flagship product of Mobilize, a sub-brand launched in 2021 with ambitions that extended far beyond selling cars. Mobilize was Renault Group’s attempt to redefine itself as a provider of “everything beyond automotive”—a catch-all vision that included charging infrastructure, car-sharing schemes, subscription-based vehicle access, servicing ecosystems, and even vehicle remanufacturing.

At its most optimistic, Renault expected Mobilize to generate as much as 30 percent of total group turnover by 2030. That figure alone underlined how central the initiative was to the company’s long-term thinking.

The Duo—and its small van sibling, the Bento—were designed specifically to serve that strategy. These were not cars aimed at private ownership in the traditional sense. Instead, they were conceived primarily for short-term use, urban fleets, and app-driven subscriptions. Think city hopping, last-mile delivery, and shared mobility rather than driveways and finance deals.

Launched last year, the Duo was slated to arrive in the UK in early 2025. That timeline has now been rendered irrelevant. Renault has confirmed it is shuttering Mobilize Beyond Automotive entirely, bringing Duo production to a halt in the process.

The official explanation is telling in both tone and substance. Renault says certain Mobilize activities are being discontinued “either because they have limited profitability prospects or because they do not directly serve the Group’s strategic priorities.” Translated from corporate speak, the numbers didn’t add up, and the strategic moment has passed.

The fallout extends beyond the Duo itself. Renault will also wind down its Zity car-sharing operation in Milan, further underlining a retreat from direct involvement in city-based mobility services. Mobilize Beyond Automotive, as a standalone entity, no longer exists. According to Renault Group, it has “fulfilled its role as an incubator and innovation driver,” helping the company explore new territories, identify viable opportunities, and—crucially—abandon those that didn’t justify further investment.

Not everything carrying the Mobilize badge is disappearing. The name will live on within Renault Group’s financial services, while charging-related operations—such as the Mobilize Charge Pass, the fast-charging network, and vehicle-to-grid functionality—will be absorbed back into the core business. These are areas with clearer revenue models and more obvious synergies with Renault’s expanding EV lineup.

There is, however, a human cost. Reuters reports that around 80 jobs will be cut from the 450 roles associated with Mobilize Beyond Automotive. It’s a relatively small number in the context of a global automaker, but it underscores the abruptness of the strategic pivot.

The timing is also significant. Mobilize was a cornerstone of former CEO Luca de Meo’s ambitious “Renaulution” turnaround plan, which aimed to transform Renault from a volume-focused manufacturer into a leaner, more profitable, and more brand-driven group. With that transformation largely complete, new CEO François Provost is clearly reshaping priorities ahead of a fresh strategic plan due in the first quarter of 2026.

Seen through that lens, the demise of the Duo feels less like a failure and more like a recalibration. Urban mobility remains a challenge worth solving, but the economics are brutal. Low margins, high operational complexity, regulatory fragmentation, and uncertain consumer behaviour have tripped up even the most well-funded experiments across the industry.

The Mobilize Duo will likely be remembered as a smart idea that arrived at the wrong moment—or perhaps one that asked the market to change faster than it was willing to. For Renault, the lesson appears to be clear: innovation is valuable, but only when it aligns cleanly with profitability and scale. For everyone else watching the urban EV space, the message is sharper still—cool concepts alone won’t keep the lights on.

Source: Renault

CONCEPT CARS

Audi GT50 Concept Is a Five-Cylinder Fever Dream—and We’re Here for It

Audi doesn’t do anniversaries quietly. When the brand wants to mark a milestone, it tends to reach into its motorsport trophy case, pull out something loud and a little unhinged, and turn it into a rolling manifesto. The new Audi GT50 concept is exactly that—a one-off celebration of 50 years of Audi’s most distinctive mechanical calling card: the inline five-cylinder engine.

The GT50 comes from Audi’s Neckarsulm apprentices, a group that has quietly become one of the company’s most interesting skunkworks. Each year, they’re given the freedom to create a single, no-compromises concept that either honors a historic Audi or previews an idea the brand wants to talk about loudly without promising anything legally binding. Past efforts have ranged from the track-obsessed RS6 GTO—so convincing it later morphed into the production RS6 GT—to quirky deep cuts like a reworked NSU Prinz and an electric reinterpretation of the A2.

This time, the brief was clear: celebrate half a century of Audi five-cylinders. The timeline starts in 1976, when the second-generation Audi 100 debuted as the first mass-produced car to use an inline-five engine. It was an oddball choice even then, splitting the difference between fours and sixes, but it became a defining Audi trait—one that delivered a unique sound, strong torque, and a motorsport legacy that still echoes today.

In fact, Audi now stands alone. Other manufacturers that once flirted with the format—Volvo, Ford, Land Rover, Volkswagen—have long since walked away. Audi hasn’t. Today, the five-cylinder lives on in just one production car: the RS3. Naturally, that’s where the GT50 begins.

From there, things get delightfully extreme.

The apprentices have transformed the RS3 into a rolling tribute to Audi’s fire-breathing American race cars of the 1980s and ’90s, most notably the 90 Quattro IMSA GTO and the 200 Quattro Trans-Am. Those cars weren’t subtle, and neither is this concept. The GT50 adopts a blocky, almost exaggerated three-box silhouette, with flat planes and aero-first surfacing that looks pulled straight from a homologation special that never was.

Retro details are everywhere. The front grille nods to old-school Audi race cars, the bodywork is stripped of excess ornamentation, and the most eye-catching feature—by far—is the set of massive turbofan-style wheels. They’re ridiculous in the best possible way, channeling pure Group B and IMSA energy while making it clear this car is about heritage, not lap times.

Audi hasn’t released full technical specs, but the powertrain is familiar—and that’s the point. Under the skin sits the RS3’s 2.5-liter turbocharged inline-five, producing 394 horsepower and driving all four wheels. In a concept like this, the numbers almost don’t matter. The engine’s presence is symbolic: proof that the five-cylinder isn’t just a nostalgia act, but a living, breathing part of Audi’s identity.

And that identity isn’t done evolving. Audi is widely expected to further honor the five-cylinder next year with a more hardcore RS3 special edition, likely building on the existing Performance Edition. If rumors hold, it could eclipse the Mercedes-AMG A45 to become the most powerful internal-combustion hot hatch on the planet—a fitting mic drop for an engine layout that refuses to fade quietly into history.

The GT50 won’t see production, and that’s fine. Its job isn’t to fill order books—it’s to remind us why Audi’s five-cylinder matters in the first place. Loud, unconventional, and unapologetically Audi, this concept proves that sometimes the best way to celebrate the past is to turn the volume all the way up.

Source: @stimmeonline / Instagram

News

Porsche’s About-Face: The 718 Boxster and Cayman Are Getting Their Gas Back

By any measure, this is one of the most dramatic drivetrain reversals in Porsche’s modern history. Just months after shuttering production of the fourth-generation 718 Boxster and Cayman—and confidently lining up bespoke electric replacements—Porsche is now preparing to reengineer that very EV platform to accept petrol power once again. In Stuttgart, the future just did a clean heel-and-toe downshift.

According to senior sources inside Porsche’s Weissach engineering center, the company is working to adapt the upcoming PPE Sport architecture—originally conceived as an EV-only platform for the next Boxster and Cayman—to accommodate a mid-mounted internal-combustion engine. The move comes as global EV demand cools and Porsche recalibrates a strategy that, until recently, pointed decisively toward an electric-only sports-car future.

This isn’t a minor tweak or a half-step hybrid hedge. It’s a full-on engineering U-turn, motivated by production efficiency, economies of scale, and—perhaps most importantly—customer appetite. Porsche has already acknowledged the shifting landscape with a costly £6.65 billion write-down tied to its EV ambitions. Now, the 718’s return to gasoline power marks the clearest signal yet that Zuffenhausen is listening closely to the market.

Two 718 Futures, One Platform

To understand what’s happening, it’s important to separate Porsche’s short-term stopgaps from its longer-term plan. The company previously confirmed it would continue building “top” versions of the outgoing 718—widely expected to be RS and GT4 RS variants—even as the electric Boxster and Cayman arrive in 2026. Those cars will effectively sit above the EVs in the lineup, keeping combustion alive for hardcore enthusiasts.

But the newly revealed petrol-powered 718s are something else entirely. These will be fifth-generation models, built on the same PPE Sport platform as their electric siblings, and expected to arrive toward the end of the decade. In other words, Porsche isn’t just extending the life of the current cars—it’s attempting to unify electric and combustion sports cars on a single next-generation architecture.

That’s an extraordinarily ambitious goal, and one that presents serious technical hurdles.

The EV Problem: Structure, Structure, Structure

The PPE Sport platform was never designed to host an engine. Like most modern EV architectures, it relies on a stressed, load-bearing battery pack integrated into a flat floor. That battery doesn’t just store energy—it provides a significant portion of the car’s structural rigidity and enables an ultra-low center of gravity.

Remove it, and the entire bodyshell loses strength.

Porsche engineers’ solution, as described to Autocar, involves developing a new structural floor section that bolts into the platform’s existing hard points, effectively restoring rigidity where the battery would have been. From there, a redesigned rear bulkhead and subframe would support the engine and transmission.

Even then, packaging remains a nightmare. The PPE Sport platform has no central tunnel, no provision for a fuel tank, no routing for fuel lines, and nowhere to run an exhaust system. Engineers suggest the rear of the car may need to be completely reworked—an acknowledgment that this platform is being pushed well beyond its original intent.

Still, Porsche insists that this effort is non-negotiable. For the petrol 718s to make sense, they must achieve dynamic parity with the EV versions. That’s a tall order when the electric cars benefit from that low-mounted battery mass, but insiders say anything less would undermine the brand’s sports-car credibility.

Euro 7 Changes the Math

For years, Porsche believed the naturally aspirated 4.0-liter flat-six was living on borrowed time. Early drafts of the EU’s Euro 7 emissions regulations threatened to bury engines like it under oversized particulate filters and complex after-treatment systems, making them impractical for low-volume sports cars.

That calculation has now changed.

The final Euro 7 rules are less severe than initially proposed, and the EU’s post-2035 exemption for e-fuels has reopened the business case for new petrol-powered performance cars. As one senior Porsche engineer put it bluntly, “The electric Boxster and Cayman risked becoming a niche. Euro 7 changed the arithmetic.”

In other words, the regulatory headwinds eased just enough for Porsche to reconsider what it does best.

Flat-Six Revival?

Exactly which engine will power the reborn petrol 718s hasn’t been finalized, but the leading candidate is familiar—and beloved. Internal plans presented by outgoing CEO Oliver Blume point toward a further evolution of the 4.0-liter naturally aspirated flat-six introduced to the 718 lineup in 2020.

In its most aggressive current form, as fitted to the GT4 RS, that engine makes up to 493 horsepower. Whether future versions match that output—or tune it differently to coexist with electric siblings—remains to be seen. But the message is clear: Porsche isn’t ready to let the flat-six go quietly.

What This Really Means

Beyond the technical intrigue, Porsche’s 718 reversal says something larger about the industry’s trajectory. Like Fiat resurrecting the 500 Hybrid or Mercedes-Benz rethinking its EV-first commercial vehicles, Porsche is acknowledging that the road to electrification isn’t a straight line.

For enthusiasts, it’s a rare bit of good news in an era of uncertainty. The Boxster and Cayman—long celebrated for their balance, tactility, and mechanical intimacy—may yet continue to offer the visceral experience that defined them, even as electric versions push performance in new directions.

If Porsche pulls this off, it won’t just have saved the 718’s soul. It will have created one of the most flexible—and philosophically complex—sports-car platforms the company has ever built.

Source: Autocar

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